Personnel Contact Quality

What it measures

Personnel contact quality captures customers' perceptions of the interpersonal service quality of a logistics provider's frontline contact personnel. The construct reflects the degree to which customer service employees demonstrate customer orientation, including adequate product knowledge, problem-solving ability, and empathy toward customers' needs and circumstances. Based on the service quality literature's emphasis on the employee–customer interface as a central driver of perceived service quality.

Response format

5-point Likert-like scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)

Scale items

• The designated DLA contact person makes an effort to understand my situation.
• Problems are resolved by the designated DLA contact person.
• The product knowledge/experience of DLA personnel is adequate.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

CR = .94–.95 across four customer segments; AVE = 85%–87%. Items reference 'DLA' (Defense Logistics Agency) and require wording adaptation for other logistics service provider contexts, as noted by the authors. Validated via multisample CFA demonstrating measurement invariance across four DLA customer segments: general merchandise (n = 1,765), textiles and clothing (n = 446), electronics (n = 530), and construction supplies (n = 215). All psychometric values are composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) — Cronbach's α not reported.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Mentzer, J. T., Flint, D. J., & Hult, G. T. M. (2001). Logistics service quality as a segment-customized process. Journal of Marketing, 65(4), 82–104.

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